GUATEMALA: Ambushed Plot

The “inside men” of last week’s plot to topple the Guatemalan government were supposed to fling open the gates at Aurora air base, the country’s key military post, precisely at 1:30 p.m. A little before that time, 25 of the plotters drifted casually around; four dozen others crouched in nearby thickets, ready to storm in. At the appointed minute, the gates flew open—disclosing two tanks and a platoon of soldiers drawn up with automatic weapons ready. “We’re sunk!” whispered one attacker. Other troops closed in on the conspirators in the bushes, and the whole crew was arrested.

A government bulletin the next day apparently explained what had happened to the inside men. A number of armed men dressed in civilian clothes, it said, had been caught inside the base. When asked to surrender, the group “unfortunately decided to resist arrest, resulting in six casualties.” President Carlos Castillo Armas blamed the plot mostly on Arbencistas—diehard followers of pro-Communist ex-President Jacobo Arbenz, the victim of Castillo Armas’ successful revolution last June.

The ringleader, he said, was Colonel Francisco Cosenza, onetime Ambassador to Rome. Cosenza let lesser plotters launch the attack and, after satisfying himself that it had failed, scampered to asylum in the Salvadoran embassy. Grudge holders of other stripes also took part: Communists, rightists, disgruntled officers. The most surprising suspect was Colonel El-fego Monzón, who as army chief negotiated the peace with Castillo Armas after Arbenz stepped down. Monzón at first served on a governing junta with Castillo Armas, then drifted into the background, his loyalties unclear. His involvement in last week’s dustup consisted mainly of his friendship with several of the plotters. Not quite willing to jail his old comrade Monzón on such a flimsy accusation, Castillo Armas neutralized him in quite another way: he sent officers, who hustled the colonel off by plane to be Ambassador to Argentina.